SMALL WONDERS

SHANGHAI DINERS ARE NO STRANGER to steaming kitchens and elbow-bumping communal tables when slurping noodles or their beloved xiaolongbao soup dumplings. But more elevated culinary experiences in China’s second city have long carried the expectation of fancy dining rooms or conceptual gimmickry. While there’s still plenty of that (you can, for instance, custom-order your coffee or cocktail on WeChat and have it made by AI robots at the just-opened Ratio Bar), Shanghai’s most exciting new restaurants are putting the spotlight firmly on the talents of their chefs, provenance-specific ingredients and wines, and flavor profiles that freewheel around China and the globe.

“I’m surprised no one else has jumped on Guiyang cuisine, the flavors are f–ing insane!” says Blake Thornley, a New Zealand chef whose creative passion and lively conversation warrant his own TV show. For now, his stage is Oha Eatery, an unassuming 22-seat diner tucked behind a streetfront espresso stand in the former French Concession. Its culinary inspiration hails from the mountains of Guizhou, a poor province in southwest China that is nevertheless rich in ethnic and biological diversity.

Thornley had never heard of the place before he arrived in Shanghai earlier this year to helm the tiny eatery after a five-year stint at Bali’s acclaimed Mozaic restaurant. Fortunately, he thrives on challenging his culinary creativity, a talent honed by participating in cooking competitions since he was a teenager (at 14, he placed third globally in Chaîne des Rôtisseurs’ Young Chef of the Year competition). Together with Oha’s Guizhou-born